"Power mix" in China as of 2008 (Source: Environmental Science and Technology)

Elon Musk

However, study fails to account for certain critical aspects

Excitement
and interest about electric vehicles is at an all time high.
With luxury makers Fisker and Tesla automotive creating high end EVs;
and GM (2011
Chevy Volt) and Nissan (2011
Nissan LEAF EV) creating electric vehicles for the masses, the
movement appears to be picking up momentum.

If EVs can conquer
the market, they promise to make massive shifts both in economics and
power dependence. When considering these changes, it's
important to both avoid "greenwashing" (embracing solutions
that on the surface seem green, without examining their true
environmental impact), while at the same time avoiding holding these
technologies to a higher standard than their traditional
counterparts.

A new
study [PDF] by America's Argonne
National Laboratory and China's Tsinghua University claims
that EV adoption in China could lead to some dire consequences.
Namely, it claims that a switch to EVs in China could double nitrogen
oxide emissions of Euro III gasoline vehicles and increase sulfur
dioxide emissions three to ten-fold, while providing no substantial
decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.

The authors say the key
problem is China's reliance on dirty electrical power -- coal plants
lacking modern scrubbers and other cleaning technologies. The
study argues that if China's power industry transitions to cleaner
power sources, the perspective may change.

However, the study
has some serious flaws. Chiefly, it fails to account for
emissions created by extracting, transporting and refining crude
oil. Thus the true picture is not so clear.

And
at least in Tesla Motor's case the funding may no longer be pouring
in quite as readily. According to recent divorce proceedings,
Tesla Motors CEO and co-founder Elon Musk reports "I
ran out of cash." It appears that Tesla won't be obtaining
a lot of funding from Musk in the near future. Granted, Musk,
who founded the venture commercial spacecraft start-up SpaceX as well
has a different definition of "broke". He spends
approximately $200,000 a month, though he makes less than that.

Virtually all EVs utilize lithium-ion batteries
to store their charge. While lithium deposits are sufficient to
support worldwide EV adoption, slow extraction will likely
cause prices
to remain high. Another key issue is that EVs and hybrids
use much more rare Earth metals than traditional vehicles. As
China controls over 95 percent of these elements, the switch to EVs
may dangerously shift
the worldwide economic balance in China's favor.

That
said, EVs do provide some compelling advantages. Namely, when
paired with clean power sources like nuclear
fission, fusion, or solar power, they can reduce net emissions.
And the EV industry is spurring a new wave of battery
improvements that could benefit a vast variety of
industries, including the computing and mobile devices market.

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Interesting idea, and looking at the past and design of older cities, I can see where you're coming from. People are closer to work and entertainment and are more likely to use mass transit. There's certainly some economical/environmental benefits of piling people up in the same building as well(shared walls, shorter utility runs, less yard maintenance, etc). However I'd like to think that with modern technology some middle ground might be reached for some office jobs as far as cutting out the inefficient commutes by simply working from home.

Realistically, we don't have to worry about either future unless gas prices ever really skyrocket and can't be replaced with some other affordable technology. Until then, sprawling cities in America will persist.

"If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel." -- AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in 2007